Michelle Triola's Post-Palimony Happy Ending

3 years ago

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Woman Up Editor

Melinda, I'm happy you brought up Michelle Triola. Triola's 1979 palimony claim gave uppity women a platform and vocabulary that nearly single-handedly removed the sordid "shacked up" connotation of two adults cohabiting as household partners -- particularly in California, where common-law marriages are not legally recognized. Gutsy in a never-eat-lunch-in-this-town-again way, Triola's landmark lawsuit against her former lad pal, actor Lee Marvin, did wonders for mistress's rights.

In my youth, I swooned a little over Marvin's rugged he-man roles, and loved his under-used gift for comedy as Kid Shaheen preparing for his last gunfight in "Cat Ballou." It nevertheless made me glad to read this weekend that Michelle enjoyed a 30-year third act as the de facto Mrs. Dick Van Dyke, without apparently giving a fig whether Rob Petrie put a ring on it. (I imagine his New Rochelle domesticity gave him all the commitment credibility a girl might want . . .)

Although the former Ms. Triola's condition for toothbrush accommodation, "he better bloody well marry me," was fitting for her long-ago case against Marvin (years before anyone uttered the words "domestic partner"), she had clearly re-considered matrimonial pros and cons by the time she took up with Mary Poppins' lucky cockney chimney sweep.

Filed Under: Woman Up

Tagged: lee marvin, LeeMarvin, michelle triola, MichelleTriola, palimony

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